Reverend Andre L. Shumake, Sr., is an ordained Baptist minister and is the President, of the Richmond Improvement Association (A Faith Based Organization), which is located within the city of Richmond, California. He formerly served as the Coordinator of the North Richmond Community Career Resource Center, located within the North Richmond Missionary Baptist Church for three years.

He has a clear and unwavering vision for the community and is determined to be part of the community's growth and economic development. His primary goal is to provide personalized service that focus on addressing academic, social, and economic needs that enable each resident to become self-sufficient, and productive citizens in their community.

North Richmond is a community that faces many challenges. It is among the most economically distressed communities in California.

Under Rev. Shumake's leadership, the Career Center emerged as a vibrant community hub and a strong symbol of hope and progress within the community. In its first year up and running, January 1999 to December 1999, its membership soared to over 500 community residents, many of whom were homeless and on welfare. During this time period, over 300 participants obtained full time employment with benefits. The majority moved from Welfare to Work.

The Career Center success at moving large numbers of North Richmond welfare recipients, homeless, and low-income residents into the job market brought widespread attention to the North Richmond Missionary Baptist Church and the Career Center. The Career Center was frequently cited as a model community-based approach to addressing chronic poverty and was strongly supported by a wide range of local, state and federal policymakers.

The Career Center received a United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) “BEST PRACTICES” award for the year 2000, for the implementation of the Marin County Project. The Career Center, in partnership with the North Richmond Missionary Baptist Church, created employment opportunities for North Richmond residents in Marin County by providing roundtrip transportation to and from jobs sites in San Rafael, California.

As a result of the Marin County Project, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission awarded $536,000 for the expansion of the Route 40 Bus Line connecting West County residents with various employment sites in Marin County.

Rev. Shumake was also a recipient of the “PEACEMAKER AWARD” for the year 2001, from the Center for Human Development Conflict Resolution Panels.

In March of 2004, Rev. Shumake was selected as a recipient of the 2004 Koshland Civic Unity Award for his contributions to the Iron Triangle neighborhood of Richmond, California. The Koshland Committee of The San Francisco Foundation seeks to promote civic unity by building mutual respect among diverse elements of the community and encouraging collaboration in addressing neighborhood problems. The Koshland awards are giving annually to recognize outstanding Bay Area community leaders who are not only risk-takers but also social innovators working to build healthy and productive neighborhoods.

On June 4, 2005, the Richmond Improvement Association, in partnership with the “Blessed are the Peacemakers” coalition, sponsored the Richmond Black-on-Black Crime summit to call on the people of Richmond to end street violence. The summit was designed as an opportunity for Richmond residents to suggest ways to make their communities safer. By the end of the day, a wealth of innovative, thoughtful and challenging recommendations was gathered to address the root causes of street violence and hasten its end.

In the aftermath of the summit, the organizers also gathered unprecedented attention and support from community stakeholders who are now focusing new strategies and resources on the crisis. Rev. Shumake believe that without the Richmond Black-on-Black Crime Summit, there would have been no such attention and support. On November 15, 2005, the Richmond City Council voted unanimously to make violence prevention the number one issue in the city, and on January 10, 2006, the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors announced that violence prevention will be the number one issue to be addressed throughout the year 2006.

The Richmond Improvement Association, in partnership with other organized groups and networks, are committed to the establishment and support of an Equitable Development Zone to create a vibrant, mixed-income community with a high quality of life for all residents. The vision, that is based on the determination to avoid displacement and gentrification, is a vision for Richmond where every family has access to quality education, where urban revitalization provides opportunities for local businesses to thrive, where “community planning” and development puts existing residents needs first, and where local policies are part of a regional plan for achieving an equitable and sustainable Bay Area.

Established in 1999, the Richmond Improvement Association (A Faith Based Organization) was founded in the spirit of clergy members coming together in Montgomery, Alabama in 1955, to address the mistreatment of Negro citizens by the community's local bus company. Montgomery's Negro clergy rallied across denominational lines, around a specific issue, and formed the Montgomery Improvement Association headed by the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Hence, the Richmond Improvement Association (RIA) was formed in the same spirit of organizing clergy members across denominational lines around specific community issues.

As a faith-based organization in Richmond, California, RIA's vision is the cultivation of strong, vibrant, churches to minister, nurture, educate, train, transport, employ, and to provide affordable housing to improve the quality of life for the disadvantage and disenfranchised, in a safe community for families.

If you always do, what you've always done, you’ll always get what you've always gotten. It is time to do something different.

This is the guiding principle of the Richmond Improvement Association.

RIA, along with the community, local government agencies, community organizations, local corporations, and the philanthropic community are working collaboratively to improve the "quality of life" for the city's economically disadvantaged and disenfranchised residents.